E is for...Exercising isn't pretty.

Unless you are one of those models in health magazines, people in exercise videos or someone who leaves the gym looking the same as when you arrived, you pretty much know that the act of exercising isn't very pretty.

Being of average height (okay, maybe the lower bound of average) and naturally having a figure that tends to show everything I have swallowed, I recently started making an effort to exercise. It was at the end of November last year when I cracked. I was not obese or heavily overweight but it was the fact that I was reduced to fitting into only 3 pairs of stretch jeans and wearing jackets in Spring because my t-shirts showed my budding muffin top that made me finally decide to do something.

I started buying health magazines, a beginner's yoga dvd and pulled off all the clothes and handbags that were hanging on the stationary bike that my dad had bought 20 years ago. The first few days felt like someone had strapped me into a straight jacket but I was determined. The well composed, sweat-free lady in the yoga dvd had told me, "Enjoy the feeling. It is your body telling you that it's working."

In the first few days, I sure did want to smash her face every time she said that while I did another squat or lunge but I tried, at the very least, to accept the "pain" every time I bent to touch my toes, hoping that one day it would be my friend. At the end of the 20 minute yoga session (first few weeks, I had only made it through the first 10), I was left huffing as if I was in search of my last breath, drenched in sweat and believed my bones had temporarily lost its rigidity.

Now, 4 months later, I still act and look as if I was put through a gauntlet every time I get off the exercise bike but the best part of it is that the range of "wearable" clothing in my wardrobe has now increased considerably!  I haven't dropped 10 dress sizes or anywhere near ready to write a book but the fact that I am back at a weight that makes me not feel conscious of the angle in which I need to sit to hide the roll that decided to make an appearance every time I sat, leaves me feeling much happier!

Lessons learnt:

• The act of exercising to lose weight is definitely not very pretty (for both, the participant and their audience) but the results are worthwhile! 

• Main ingredients required:

1. Wanting to lose the weight because YOU want to.
2. Willpower to get off the couch and onto the bike.
3. Willingness to not see it as weight loss, rather as "energy gain".